Locking Columns And Rows in Excel 13

Assume that we have a spreadsheet full of data and while scrolling down we get lost with all the data. We can’t see what data corresponds to the appropriate labeled cell. The same when we scroll to the right of our spreadsheet, we can’t see the first column which contains important information that we always want them to be viewable. In Excel we can freeze panes in our spreadsheet so that they always remain visible. To keep column titles and info always into sight we must follow the steps below.

First of all we must select the View tab and from the area of the ribbon named Window we select the arrow next to the command FreezePanes for the drop down menu to appear, as shown in the image below.

We see that the available commands are the following:

Freeze Panes:

Freeze Top Row:

Freeze First Column:

To make these commands understandable, we have a large spreadsheet as shown below, where we want to navigate through our data. The only thing though is that when we want to scroll down in our spreadsheet we want the first two rows (1 and 2) to be visible, and when we want to scroll to the right in our spreadsheet we want the first column (A) to be always visible. How can it be done? Of course with the command FreezePanes. First of all we must find the right cell for this to work.

In the spreadsheet above we want to lock the first two rows, which contain the labels for our columns such as income, expenses and the suppliers that we associate with. Also we want to lock the first column which contains the dates that we have bought from our suppliers. In order to accomplish that we must go to the cell B3 because we want the two above rows to freeze and we want the column to the left A to freeze.

Then we go to the View tab and from the area of the ribbon named Window we select the command FreezePanes and from the drop down menu that appears we select the command FreezePanes as shown in the image below.

Once the command is selected a grid horizontal and vertical line appears above the selected cell B3 and at the end of column A.

Now if we scroll down in our spreadsheet the rows 1and 2 will be always visible so we can always see the labels as shown in the image below.

If we scroll to the right in our spreadsheet the A column which contains the dates will always be visible in our spreadsheet as shown in the image below.

For any reason we want to unfreeze the parts of the window we just select the same command with the procedure described above, only now it mentions UnfreezePanes as we can see in the image below.

If we only want to freeze the TopRow meaning the line 1 we select the command FreezeTopRow as shown in the image below no matter what cell is activated.

If we only want to freeze the FirstColumn meaning ColumnAwe select the command FreezeFirstColumn as shown in the image below no matter what cell is activated.

Whatever we choose we can still Unfreeze the panes by selecting the command UnfreezePanes as described above.

You can also check out the video below describing the Freeze Panes feature in Excel.

Freeze Panes in Excel 13

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